In preparation for Las Vegas Sands's Q3 earnings release tomorrow, we’ve put together the pertinent forward looking commentary from LVS’s Q2 earnings release/call and subsequent conferences.
Post Earnings Conference Commentary
MACAU
- [Four Seasons] “We’re starting to really get a significant amount of weekend and even some midweek business, non-gaming business.”
- [Sites 5 & 6] “We originally expected Phase I and Phase II to open somewhere late in ‘11 and beginning first quarter of ’12, where we would have about 4,300 rooms available and eventually 6,000 rooms available I think by the end of that first quarter.”
SINGAPORE
- “MBS is about 80% open, meaning all the hotel rooms are open, 75% of the expo is open, 150 of about 280 stores and shopping are open, and the event plaza is open. So what’s left is some stores.”
- “Present occupancy levels running mid 70s and perhaps the highest rate in Singapore in U.S. dollars—about $270 a night.”
- “We expect to do EBITDA margins between 50 and 60% when we fully ramp up in Singapore.”
- “And I think of real importance is the retail market. We have 150 stores open. We are running the revenues at about half of what the anticipation is because it’s in a growth model. When that ramps up, we expect to have EBITDA numbers out of the retail area between 150 and $200 million hopefully, that’s why it was built that way, and eventually be able to sell that at a very good multiple and pay down debt and get some cash out. So there’s growth there.”
- [available plots around MBS] “They’re all taken.”
- [IPO in Singapore?] “No.”
JAPAN
- “ We expect the tender to take place in ‘12. We are one of the leading if not the leading candidate for the integrated resort part of that [Casino] bill. That bill will include, we think, two integrated resorts, one in Tokyo, one in Osaka, and then a myriad of other small casinos in other places such as Okinawa and other suburban areas around those small areas around Japan. If in fact we win our tender in ‘12, we figure the earliest we could get open would be ‘15 and the latest would probably be the beginning of ‘16.”
- “Not at the beginning but eventually 25,000 slots. It’s a big market. And what I planned to do is open up with 5 or 10,000 slots, about our warehouse some space and build the floor and build the infrastructure that I could put in a lot more slots. Well, I won’t go to Okinawa.”
- “So, Tokyo would be a preferred location, second or maybe equal would be Osaka. Both of them we’ve been to, we’ve looked at very specific locations, one – and well I don’t want to mistakenly spot it out, one of the very, very good location is serviced by public transportation. And the Osaka is very, very good, very and excellent roadway system.”
Q2 Conference Call
LAS VEGAS/BETHLEHEM
- [On rates] “I think we’ve been averaging on weekends between $240 and $260….For 2011 group rates, we’re trying to stay above 200 bucks. In some groups, we are getting higher than that. I can’t tell you that we are there yet. We have some business with lag that goes back six to eight months.”
- “Looking ahead, we expect to realize more group rooms in 2010 than we did in 2009. The pace of group bookings continues to improve and 2011 should be stronger than 2010.”
- “We are comping less on a relative basis year on year, but it’s still too high. We’re still in the mid-20s. I think we’re probably less guilty than our competitors, but we’re still guilty of it. Weekends are not the issue. We can get FIT and others on the weekends. The midweek has been the challenge. And I think across the market there is too much comping, but there is also too much supply in the market right now. So until we see stronger group, stronger FIT, I think you will see that continue to be a problem for us and for the market in general.”
- “We restarted the construction of our 300-room hotel for Sands Bethlehem and expect it to open in the spring of 2011.”
- “Group business % for 2010, we are hoping to get into the mid 20s. I think we’ll see ‘11 will exceed – hopefully, will exceed 30, but we are not there yet.”
SINGAPORE
- “Although we expect as much as $450 million of that amount [$750MM] to be paid out of cash flow generated by Marina Bay Sands during the remainder of the year, an additional $430 million, principally retainage payments on the development, will be paid out of cash flow from operating the property in 2011.”
- [Rolling volume] “But as you get into the beginning of June, that number has ramped up significantly where it was above the $600 million range, and now in the 8 to $900 million range on a weekly basis.”
- “The non-rolling and slot per day, when you started off in May, were kind of in the 2 million plus range per day, and then when you’ve gotten to the beginning part of June, it started to go upwards, pushing into the 2.5 million range. And now as we have progressed into late June and into the early part of July, it’s kind of pushed up above the US$3 million per day…. Our hold number on the VIP rolling situation has been lower than expected, but we are very consistent in our mass market and slot wins.”
- “By September 3, we will have a total – we will have over 300 electronics, including Rapid Roulette and Rapid Sic Bo. Some of that will come in August, but the whole project will be completed by September 3.”
- [Commission rate] I would say, 1.2 to 1.3, something like that is where it is going to be.
- “Casino margin varies, 52-55% depending upon the day…. The overall margin of 43.7 is probably dragged by the hotel and the various expenses.”
